A mysterious 'Disease X' is spreading in a remote region of Congo. Experts say it's probably a known illness — but which one? And can it be treated?
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00:00The new Mpox strain is spreading, and changing, fast.
00:07The virus is morphing in areas where experts lack the funding and equipment to properly
00:12track it, meaning there are several unknowns about its severity and how it's transmitting.
00:19The new strain, clade 1b, was first identified in April in samples collected from a gold
00:25mining town in the Democratic Republic of Congo's South Kivu province.
00:35It is potentially more lethal than the Mpox outbreak in 2022, which was driven primarily
00:40by male-to-male sexual contact.
00:43The clade 1b strain can be transmitted through any kind of physical contact or contaminated
00:49material.
00:52The crowded conditions of Congo's refugee camps have caused the virus to spread rapidly.
00:58On August 13th, Mpox was declared a public health emergency in Africa.
01:03Just a day later, the WHO released this statement.
01:08Today, the emergency committee met and advised me that in its view, the situation constitutes
01:16a public health emergency of international concern.
01:21The WHO says that Congo now has over 18,000 cases, and over 600 have died as a result
01:29of Mpox this year.
01:33At least 12 countries across Africa have registered a spike in cases of the virus.
01:42Sweden was the first country outside of Africa to record a case of the clade 1b variant.
01:49From a person who had travelled to an affected area of Africa.
01:55Children have been disproportionately affected by this outbreak, accounting for approximately
02:0070% of cases in Congo.
02:02You see children in the IGP camps, they are always playing together, so they have time
02:09together.
02:10They don't really care about the distance, social distance, they don't care about that.
02:14So they play together, they are always together.
02:17And you can also see in the household, they even pass the night on the same bed.
02:25Children as well as pregnant women and those with weakened immune systems are more likely
02:30to suffer severe symptoms and die.
02:33Children who contract the disease are more than twice as likely to die than adults.
02:41The Congolese government hopes to start vaccinations soon, with children first in line.
02:46But the arrival of shots has been slow.
02:51Efforts to contain this disease are becoming increasingly more difficult.